Each month, millions of patients visit Zocdoc to find healthcare providers across every state and specialty and to instantly book an appointment online. That means every day, with their clicks, patients are telling us what they want from their providers — and who meets their standards.
Patient preferences tell us a lot about how best to support those patients. The more insight your practice gains on real patient behavior, the better you can position yourself in the marketplace.
We analyzed the data from hundreds of thousands of urgent care bookings in 2023 to break down the 5 Ws (and one H) of a Zocdoc urgent care patient. Here, 15 facts about potential urgent care patients that you need to know.
Who is on Zocdoc?
Everybody, with a female, 25-plus skew
- 3 out of 5 urgent care bookers are women.
- Nearly half (47%) are millennials.
- Gen Z makes up nearly a quarter (26%) of bookings.
What are they looking for?
A provider who takes their commercial insurance, offers online booking, and can see them ASAP
- 3 out of 4 urgent care patients book with a commercial insurance plan.
- 9 out of 10 urgent care patients book in-network appointments.
- 60% of urgent care patients book via mobile, while 40% book via desktop.
- Almost 4 in 5 bookings were for appointments within one day.
When do they want to meet?
Mondays and Fridays are great, but they’ll book anytime — day or night
- Monday and Fridays are the two most popular days.
- A little over half of patients (52%) prefer to book urgent care appointments from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. when the office is typically closed.
Where do they want to meet?
Fairly close by
- 4 out of 5 appointments are within 20 miles of the patient.
Why do they want to meet?
To feel better ASAP
- The top three visit reasons include consultations, illness, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing.
- When patients book without insurance, the top three visit reasons include prescriptions/refills, high blood pressure/hypertension, and ECG/EKG testing.
- COVID-19 testing, prescriptions/refills and high blood pressure/hypertension were the top three most booked out-of-network visit reasons.
How do they make decisions?
They seek spaces that stand out and providers who speak more than one language
- Relative to urgent care providers with zero office photos, those with 4 or more office photos got 2.7x as many bookings.
- Urgent care providers who speak two languages received 1.5x as many bookings compared to providers who only speak one language.
Meet the patients
Zocdoc urgent care patients tend to be young and commercially insured. They are looking for timely appointments with providers in their local area. They also want to be able to book online appointments 24/7.
Get to know these patients firsthand by listing your practice on Zocdoc today. Consult with an enterprise sales representative to learn more about how Zocdoc can grow your business.